Pressure Cooker or Slow Cooker?

[Idiotxit]

I could try to shoehorn this into an actual AIBU but I'm posting here for traffic as I want to order tonight.

I work from home, I'm a keen cook and cook most days at least once a day. I thought I'd settled on a slow cooker, but suddenly thinking maybe a pressure cooker is better.

If I go for a slow cooker, I think I'd get one that can be used over a flame as well, so I'm not faffing around with separate pans to sear meat etc.

Any tips?

[UsedToBeAPaxmanFan]

I've got one that is both. I think it's called an Instant Pot. I bought it after seeing rave reviews here on Mumsnet and don't regret it at all. I use it more as a pressure cooker but it's also brilliant as a slow cooker. I wouldn't be without it.

It was a lot of money but is incredibly versatile. Amazon sometimes have it cheaper in a flash sale (or deal of the day, whatever they are called).

[bertsdinner]

I like my slow cooker for casseroles and the odd joint, but I think a pressure cooker may be a bit more versatile. I dont bother browning meat, etc, just stick it all in and turn it on.
Id love an Instant Pot, they sound great.

[Ivorbig1]

Do you want your food cooked quickly or slowly??? If you want a quick chilli a slow cooker is useless, likewise if you want a casserole ready for you after a long day away from home a pressure cooker is equally useless .

[bestcatintheworld]

Instant Pot. Does both, and changed my life.

[LakeFlyPie]

I've got both and much prefer my pressure cooker. Find I can produce what would take all day in the SC within the hour, if not quicker in the PC. Great for pulses and meat is always v tender. Flavours seem to intensify whereas I find the SC sometimes makes things a bit of a flavourless mush.

[CatNip2]

I have an instant pt too, heard about it on MN, use it loads.

[SteviebunsBottrittrundle]

I prefer slow cookers myself. But obviously, if you want your food cooked quickly then maybe not for you!

[40somethingwonderful]

I've an instant pot too, it's fantastic and well worth the money.

[Cookingongas]

I prefer my slow cooker. I can make a meal in half an hour when I get home anyway so I can't get the point of my pressure cooker tbh. The slow cooker gives me food ready the moment I walk through the door after work.

If budget isn't an issue though an instant pot would be my first choice

[Idiotxit]

Thanks all. Instant Pot sounds good then. I'll have a google of that.

In a pressure cooker, can you really get stewing type meat to that spoonable, falling off the bone texture that you get from a five hour braise in the oven in an hour?

I'm not often pushed for time as based at home, so thought a slow cooker would be fine. I"m having my head turned now!

[2rebecca]

I have a slow cooker but it's electric and the main reason i use it is so that I can put food on on a morning before work and come home to dinner. I'm not convinced all that searing is necessary and often just bung things in and hope for the best. I've never used a pressure cooker.

[CatherineDeB]

I have got both, a really lovely Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker and a cheap as chips slow cooker that has largely sat unused in my pantry for ten years.

I love the pressure cooker, absolutely love it. It was expensive but the parts are guaranteed to be available for 20 or 30 years or something like that and I expect it to still be going to be honest.

That is the only reason I wouldn't buy an expensive electric one, the Kuhn Rikin was about £130 from memory but will last forever. Maybe that won't bother you. I also take it camping!

Now to the slow cooker, it sat unused because after a few attempts I decided that I didn't like coming home to what it produced, and I bought various slow cooker cookbooks. Someone on here recommended a book recently called Whole Foods Slow Cooked and the food I have produced from my very cheap slow cooker has been amazing. I think that part of it is that the recipes often don't require it to be on all day, four or five hours. I am at home a lot too so I can manage to turn it on/off. Obvs you could do that with a programmable one but seeing as mine has literally only been used twice a year until now I have never bothered.

[CatherineDeB]

I prefer slow cooked in the oven too Polter but we have got an aga so half the year I have to do something else.

Modern pressure cookers are nothing like the ones by mother used to blow up from time to time.

[FionaThePrincess]

I've recently switched from a slow cooker to an Instant Pot. A great feature is the sauté function, so you can sweat onions, garlic, etc., brown meat and so on; then add the rest of your ingredients to the same pot and either pressure cook it or slow cook it. If your sauce needs thickening after slow or pressure cooking, you can then use the same sauté function to give it a good bubble.

I didn't get on with the Instant Pot at first, but I'm starting to like it much more now. I did a curry in it today with a couple of frozen chicken breasts, and it pressure-cooked it in 35 minutes. The chicken was lovely and tender.

It's also a rice cooker and yoghurt maker, if they're of any interest to you.

[RortyCrankle]

I would happily swap my slow cooker for a pressure cooker.

[lougle]

Instant Pot I started the thread about them just after Christmas and I think, from memory, about 35 mumsnetters bought one during the course of it. It's so amazing that I bought a 2nd one so I have two!

To answer the slow cooker vs pressure cooker debate, the instant pot can do either/or. It can cook with or without pressure, and has a slow cook function. It also has a brilliant rice function (which is one of the ways that having two comes in really handy - you can be cooking the main meal in one IP and the rice in the other), and I make Greek yoghurt weekly using the yoghurt function and a straining bag. The yoghurt function is also perfect for proving bread.

I could go on and on, but I won't .

[UsedToBeAPaxmanFan]

lougle I was one of those 35! The Instant Pot is truly brilliant. Also a doddle to wash up. Thank you for recommending it.

[mmmmmchocolate]

Can you use the pressure function on the instant pot to can jarred sauces? (Tomato sauce etc) I'm looking at a pressure cooker just for this purpose but it seems expensive just to do this one thing. The instant pot looks like it'll do much more for my money. Has anyone ever used it to sterilise filled jars of food?

[brodchengretchen]

I have an Instant Pot and a rice cooker. They changed my life - I'm exaggerating only a little bit.

The IP will certainly sterilise.